


Time Passes Unnoticed

by Tyloric



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural, Angst, Apparently someone cast Auto-Life on Danny, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Presumed Dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-23
Updated: 2013-02-23
Packaged: 2017-12-03 08:50:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/696482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tyloric/pseuds/Tyloric
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny dies on Tuesday.</p>
<p>He shows up at Steve's house on Sunday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time Passes Unnoticed

**Author's Note:**

> Something something something unbeta'd. You know the drill.
> 
> Here's a fun fact: my working title for this was "Zombie Danny freaks Steve the fuck out."

_Eidolon (īˈdōlən, noun): The spirit image of a person living or dead; a shade or phantom look alike of the human form; a doppelganger._

  
  
Danny dies on Tuesday, during a joint operation with the HPD to take down a massive drug smuggling operation. One second he’s behind cover with Steve and the next he’s on the ground with a nine millimeter hole in his head, blood seeping out of the exit wound, his blue eyes open but seeing nothing.  
  
Steve doesn’t remember much after that, only bits and pieces. He remembers screaming until his throat is ragged, remembers the blind fury that ended with several drug dealers dead or dying at his feet. He remembers cradling Danny’s lifeless body in his arms, tears of rage and anguish spilling down his face and stinging his eyes, holding on so tightly that Chin has to pry him away. He remembers falling to his knees and weeping.  
  
It’s Kono that ends up having to tell Rachel and Grace what’s happened, breathing deeply to steady herself, even though the sobs continue to escape.  
  
He eventually runs out of tears, his rage giving way to a cold, shocked numbness.  
  
He goes to see Grace on Wednesday, but he’s not at the house long. Rachel won’t look him in the eye, and Grace comes at him kicking a screaming. _Why didn’t you protect him? You promised! I hate you!_ Those words break what little of his self control remains and he falls apart all over again.  
  
Steve runs back to his truck and drives away, tires screeching against the concrete.  
  
The wake is on Thursday. He takes one look at Danny in the casket - he looks normal, the bullet hole gone, cheeks full of color, like he’s just sleeping - before he has to run to the mens room and vomit. He stays hunched over the toilet bowl for several minutes, just dry heaving. Wiping his mouth, he steps out of the stall to find Chin leaning against the sink with his arms crossed, his face artificially devoid of emotion.  
  
A better man would have offered comfort to his friend, to try and share their grief so that they can lean on each other for support.  
  
Steve is not that man.  
  
He walks past Chin without looking him in eye and heads back to his truck. Alone, he presses his forehead against the steering wheel until he’s no longer shaking, and drives home.  
  
The funeral is on Friday. He doesn’t go.  
  
He’s drunk by noon on Saturday, and is passed out - a mixture of booze and utter exhaustion - by eight.  
  
A banging at his front door rouses him just after midnight on Sunday. He ignores it and just curls in on himself tighter, trying desperately to grab hold of the sleep he knows he’s already lost. The pounding eventually stops and Steve sighs, grateful for the silence that falls.  
  
When he hears the front door open and close, instinct takes over. He rolls to his feet and grabs the gun he keeps in the nightstand, flicks the safety off, and slowly makes his way down the stairs.  
  
The scraping sound of a chair sliding across the tiled floor in the kitchen followed by the stove light clicking on makes Steve flatten himself against the wall. He takes one, deep breath, and swings around the wall and into the room with his gun poised and ready.  
  
Steve’s blood runs cold and his arms drop, the gun tumbling from his hand. He suddenly can’t breathe and can’t hear anything except for the pounding of his heart.  
  
“Hey,” Danny says from where he sits at the table and Steve falls backwards, landing on his ass, the doppelganger immediately rising to his feet and moving towards him.  
  
“ _Stay back!_ ” Steve yells, terrified, crawling backwards and Not-Danny freezes mind-step. “No no no, this isn’t happening,” he rambles, the adrenaline in his system making his mind overclock, and he can’t make sense of anything. “You’re not real! You can’t be real!”  
  
“Hey, hey, hey! Steve, calm down,” the imposter drops to his knees, holding up his hands placatingly. “Come on, super SEAL. Don’t fall apart on me.”  
  
“Who the fuck are you?” Steve yells, anger beginning to coil up with the panic even as he backed up against the wall. Images of the lifeless corpse with a hole in its head flash through his mind in a painful blur.  
  
“It’s me, babe. It’s Danny,” the man explains in a patient, soothing tone.  
  
“Don’t jerk me around!” He snarls. “Danny’s dead! I saw him die, I fucking _felt him die!_ ”  
  
“Steve,” Not-Danny pleads, “It really is me.”  
  
“Fucking bullshit!”  
  
“I can prove it!” Not-Danny reaches into his pocket and Steve lunges at him, knocking him backwards, straddling his hips and pinning his arms above his head. The man struggles against him for only a few second before going still and stares up at Steve with eerily familiar blue eyes and a sad smile on his face. He’s clutching something in his hand, something shiny and gold and Steve instantly recognizes it; a Five-0 badge. Danny’s Five-0 badge. Steve’s limbs start to shake and tears fill his eyes as and he can’t seem to look away from it.  
  
“Babe,” the man beneath him whispers gently, “I’m here, Steve. I’m okay, I promise.”  
  
Steve finally registers the heat coming off of Danny, warm and alive, and releases one of the man’s wrists so that he can rest his hand on Danny’s chest, just over his heart. Steve can feel the steady rhythm of a heart beat, and he closes his eyes and just focuses on that feeling underneath his palm, taking deep calming breaths of his own. Danny rests his palm over Steve’s hand and Steve has to swallow against the lump in his throat.  
  
“Danny?” He asks shakily, finally meeting the man’s eyes.  
  
Danny smiles up at him; a smile Steve thought he’d never see again. “Yeah.”  
  
He pulls back so that he’s sitting on his knees, and when the first choked sob escapes his throat Danny’s eye widen in alarm, causing him to scramble to get up. “Shit, Steve. Are you crying? Jesus, you are! Come on, super SEAL, you can’t cry. No, no, no - god dammit, this is all so screwed up.” He pulls Steve in and rests Steve’s head on his shoulder, rubbing his other hand up and down Steve’s back.  
  
Now that it’s happening, Steve finds that he can’t hold it back anymore. He cries in deep, gasping sobs, tears running freely down his face and soaking into Danny’s shirt. The man whispers soothing thing in his ear, rocking back and forth like he was trying to calm a child. Steve is gripping Danny’s shirt like he’s never going to let go, pulling Danny as close as he can.  
  
“I’m sorry,” he croaks. “Danny, I’m so sorry.”  
  
“For what, babe?” Danny whispers back.  
  
“I couldn’t protect you. You died because I couldn’t protect you. I’m so sorry.”  
  
Danny lets out a quick, surprised laugh. “You think it’s your fault? We were in a shootout with gangbangers, Steve. You and I both know the risks of the job. I don’t blame you - God, Steve. How could you even think that?” He scorned using his _you’re such an idiot_ voice.  
  
It was Steve’s turn to laugh, though it sounded a bit manic. He pulled back sniffing, holding Danny by the shoulders. “I don’t understand. How... _how_?”  
  
“This is really a conversation I’d rather not have on the floor,” Danny says seriously. Steve blinks and nods, stumbling to his feet with Danny following after him, both of them sitting at the kitchen table. Danny pulls his chair over so that he’s as close to Steve as he’s able to be while still facing him. Steve grabs his hand and doesn’t let go, like he needs to be reassured that Danny is actually here.  
  
“Might as well just start from the top then, yeah?” Steve nods stiffly. “Right. So, first and foremost... I’m not human.”  
  
Steve is quiet for only a second before replying with, “Okay.”  
  
“Okay?” Danny echos, startled.  
  
“That’s the only thing that makes any of this make sense,” Steve reasons.  
  
Danny stares at him for a long moment before chuckling, “You really are one of a kind, aren’t you?” He continues before Steve can reply, “Anyway, yeah, not human. I’m an Eidolon.”  
  
His face scrunches up in what Danny likes to call his aneurysm face. “Eye what?”  
  
Rather than mock him, Danny just looks sad. “You see... I’m not the real Daniel Williams.”  
  
Steve feels like there is a stone resting inside his gut. “What does that mean?”  
  
“Daniel Williams died in 1863 during the American Civil War. His pain, his desperation, his anger, his sorrow that he was going to die from an infection from a bullet wound was so great that it drew me too him. I promised him that I would look after his family and their children, and their children’s children, and that was enough that he was able to crossover peacefully. I took his memories, his personality, his likeness and continued on in his stead.” He raises his hands and shrugs like he’s saying _what can you do?_  
  
Steve’s mind has all but sputtered to a halt as he tries to take in and process all of this information. This whole situation was just so fucked up, so goddamn crazy that no one in their right mind would ever believe it.  
  
Apparently, Steve McGarrett is not in his right mind.  
  
“So you’re a hundred and fifty years old?” He asks curiously.  
  
Danny snorts, “Nah, not even close. I’m much older than that. I can’t even give you a number. This is the first time I’ve ever taken mortal form, though, and I’ll be here until the Williams line dies out, which isn’t likely to be anytime soon. Seriously, those people reproduce faster than bunnies.”  
  
Steve laughs, actually laughs, and Danny smiles in relief. “What about Grace? Is she really...?”  
  
“Yeah, she’s mine. I’m as shocked as you are, really. I didn’t know I could reproduce. Rachel was actually my first real relationship since I got here, you know?”  
  
“Does she know about you?”  
  
“Nah, not yet. I was planning too, but then our marriage was suddenly over and I never had another opportunity, you know? I’ll have too eventually, because there is still no way that I’m leaving Grace. Not a chance in hell. I was just waiting to tell them until Grace was a little older, is all.”  
  
Steve grins, wide and happy, like he’s just figured something out. “It really is you, isn’t it?”  
  
“How many times do we have to go over this?” Danny groan with a rolls of his eyes.  
  
With another laugh, Steve pulls hard on Danny’s hand, making him yell in outrage. He stumbles forward and Steve catches Danny in his arms, holding him tightly and grinning like an idiot. When Danny gets the look that he’s about to start ranting, Steve silences him with a kiss, pressing their lips together. He pours all of his emotions into it; his desperation, his relief, his joy and Danny hesitates for only a second before he’s moving with the same urgency.  
  
He pulls back and whispers, “Bed.”  
  
Steve grins and is happy to comply.  
  
-  
  
Steve pulls Danny in close, nuzzling his neck and breathing in deeply, happy and sated. “You’re amazing, Danno.”  
  
“I’m going to be walking funny for a week,” he complains without any real heat behind his words.  
  
“That’s the best compliment anyone has ever given me,” Steve replies wickedly.  
  
“You’re a damned neanderthal,” Danny laughs, pressing his back against Steve’s chest, sighing contentedly when Steve wraps an arm around his waist.  
  
“Why did it take you so long to come back, anyway?” Steve asks, already half asleep.  
  
“I couldn’t damn well wake up in front of everyone, could I? Sure, the Williams’ wouldn’t been surprised, but everyone else? It would have been a clusterfuck. No, I just waited until the funeral was over and then I climbed my way out before they started to bury me.”  
  
“You climbed out? How?”  
  
“Practice,” he says simply. “Though I may have scarred one of the groundskeepers for life.”  
  
Steve laughs. “But you’re not going to leave, right?”  
  
“No, Steve. I’m not gonna leave.” Danny chuckles. “I doubt you’d let me even if I wanted too.”  
  
“Damn straight,” he says with vigor. “But you know we’re gonna have to tell everyone, right? I don’t want to have to keep you a secret.”  
  
“Yeah, I know. But not tonight.”  
  
“No. Not tonight.”

**Author's Note:**

> I figure that the Williams clan was letting Danny be buried in Hawaii because they knew it wasn't going to matter anyway.
> 
> Feedback and kudos are always appreciated!


End file.
